Supreme Commander Wars End
by mortimer012
Summary: the infinite war seems to be coming to an end, avatar Marxon has nearly defeated all against the Aeon and has caught wind of a promising young individual, but will she really be the nail he needs to hammer into the coffin of the enemy? or is she something, else?
1. Chapter 1 Rise

Cassandra had lost everything to the UEF, they had attacked the world she was on, her family gone, her friends lost, if it wasn't for one person who grabbed her she would have also become another forgotten patch of dust on the world.

That, was a long time ago.

She had grown up, pushed herself to the limit, every day since she had joined the illuminate military she had trained to the breaking point, she could easily defeat the others of her class without breaking a sweat, the woman had honed her skills to the point where she could even hold up against the other trainers.

She was going to make the UEF pay for what they did to her.

For what they did to her home.

A steadfast follower of The Way and an unusually acute tactical mind that would rival a cybran's had brought attention from many, she had been offered many safer occupations ranging from infiltration to combat advisement yet she was fully locked on her choice.

She wasn't going to be sitting down somewhere telling others what to do and she wasn't going to be walking alongside the enemy, no, she knew what she wanted.

So when the day came, everyone was shocked at her reaction.

It wasn't hard to find initiate Cassandra, she was in the main yard, keeping not only her physical skills but also her mental state razor sharp, as she sparred against a particularly stubborn trainer she gave solutions to another that was laying out situations before her.

Evaluator Celene waited as a particularly interesting scenario was brought forth moments after she arrived to inform Cassandra of the news.

"you are surrounded, your ACU is heavily damaged but there are several other engineers around you, you have 1 modification installed into your ACU that will allow you to survive heavy siege from heavy artillery but along with you and your engineers is an important captive that has to be brought back alive, one hit from heavy artillery will kill said POI, you must hold out for ten minutes for extraction to arrive, what modification will you take and what will you do?"

Celene smiled, no one had been able to answer this correctly before, well, no one from her class.

But the answer she gave shocked the evaluator.

"tier 2 engineering suite, I will begin a shield generator and assign two engineers to take over, one engineer is to heal my ACU while the others lay-up basic defenses, I will engage any nearby mobile artillery and remove them as a threat once they are removed than I will reclaim some enemy ground forces firing on me to give the remaining mass required for the shield, once the shield is up I will reassign that engineer to gather matter from the wreckages, once basic defenses are up I will proceed to place a tier 2 radar followed by four tier 2 point defenses and four tier 3 anti-air defenses, once they are up I will immediately begin construction of a land factory, reassigning all the other engineers to assist me."

"At which point you will be able to begin constructing your own army, thus making evacuation, secondary."

This was the last scenario, the 'end game' scenario so to say that was to be used on her, and she, although roughly, was able to provide the solution.

"Excellent."

Everyone snapped at attention when the evaluator spoke.

"Ma'am, to what do we owe this pleasure?"

"Ha-ha, calm yourselves, I am merely here to personally give this initiate her new orders."

Cassandra felt her heart skip a beat in concern.

"You are to report immediately for integration with your ACU, once that has been completed you shall receive further orders."

The evaluator smiled before walking away, leaving behind a shocked initiate, one that broke from her state when she instinctively defended against an attack from the trainer she was sparring with, she had brought him to the ground with ease.

"Damn, I thought that I'd finally get you again."

She chuckled before helping him up.

Both the trainers who were 'assisting' her gave the woman a hug each.

"We'll miss you here Cass."

"Yeah, please, stop by once in a while when you have time."

She smiled before saying she would, giving them both one last hug before heading away.

Neither saw her glance back at them as they turned to head off somewhere else, those two had been the closest thing to big brothers for her since she arrived, sure they were brutally hard on her but they meant well, and she knew it.

It wasn't far for Cassandra before she reached the place she was meant to be, a rather large building of elegant design, yet what was that saying? In the wild, the more beautiful something is, the more deadly, and this was as close to that saying as it was.

She barely walked in before seeing dozens of others, members of the illuminate and judging by their attire they were technicians and similar, and for the first time in a long time, she felt, not only lost, but also out of place.

Luckily as the fairly young initiate looked around for signs of where to go one of the aeon saw her, he chuckled before walking away from his group and heading straight to her.

"Ma'am? Can I help you?"

He immediately recognized the uniform, an initiate, likely one that snuck over here to see a real life ACU.

"Yes, I was told to come here for, integration?"

Like everyone heard that one word silence befell the formerly busy interior.

"So, you're the new one, very well, follow me."

She didn't hesitate but that was because she felt even more uncomfortable now than before.

"Tell me, do you know what to expect?"

She answered him honestly, she had no idea, and that made him laugh as they neared what seemed like a locker room, there was several others inside but they were all women.

"Look for your locker and get suited up, if you're having trouble than you'll have to ask one of the others to assist."

The others in the room laughed when they saw her, they were quick to help her into her new attire.

"Done than?"

Cassandra said that it felt a little tight but he merely glanced her over before saying it was alright.

Trust me, when you're in the ACU than you won't mind, now come on.

The initiate was still a bit uncomfortable about this, it seemed so strange and sudden.

The following moments proved even stranger, she was leaded to what was simply, a ledge before being handed a helmet to seal her suit completely.

"What is happening?"

"You see that pool way down there?"

She looked over and saw it, a rippling silver pool, she knew even from where she was by the unnatural way it was moving that it wasn't ordinary liquid.

"Yeah?"

"You're going to be lowered down there, trust us; we've done this hundreds of times already."

She still felt unsure but decided to do as told.

Nearby machinery activated, bringing forth fields of gravity around Cassandra, raising her up above the ground slowly and moving to the center of air above the pool, gently allowing her body to be lowered down.

Fear finally took hold of Cassandra as she reached the pool, but as she was about to shout out for them to stop she was lowered all the way in.

As the last of strange material covered the visor of her helmet, Cassandra saw someone, a woman, calm, her smile soothing, her bright emerald green eyes captivating.

" _My champion"_

With those two words said, this woman vanished, replaced by darkening silver light

Cassandra had a feeling of knowing this person, like she was important, but fear had overridden her mind as she realized that her body was no longer being lowered, nor was it being raised up.

"Alright, how is she holding up?" asked the man that escorted Cassandra around.

Some of the aeon scientists went over their readings before replying.

"She's panicking but her link is strong."

"Good, make the final adjustments quickly, and she did mention that her suit was rather tight.

Some of the people in the room chuckled at that but they all worked immediately got to work.

"Alright, we are ready."

"Good, raise it up."

Even though the men and women in the room had done this so many times it was still incredibly gratifying to see when their work was successful.

From the silvery pool came something incredible.

An Aeon ACU, in all its glory.

"Alright, well done, now someone, show her how to get out."

As Cassandra was assisted with exiting her brand new ACU a message arrived at Avatar-of-War Jaran Marxon, when he read it he smirked.

He had been keeping a close eye on this initiate's growth and she would prove to be extremely valuable to him, maybe the very person he needed to achieve his ultimate goal.

"One way or another Burke, one way or another."


	2. Chapter 2 Practice

It had been almost an ten minutes and Cassandra still found it hard to stop the shaking, it was, terrifying for her when the interior of her ACU formed, it was like looking at liquid metal hardening, changing, trapping her, only when the entirety of her ACU had been fully formed had the systems come to life, revealing what she was inside.

Still, some things, no matter how fascinating, was still simply, terrifying.

It took some time to snap her out of her daze and let her unlock the main seal, when that was done she heard a strange sound come from her right side but as she was about to turn to look she was told to stop, the voice of the man that had escorted her around.

"Alright ma'am, what's your name?"

"Cassandra."

"Alright Cas, I'm Daniel, just, trust me alright, you see that button to your bottom left?"

She looked down and saw it, a single button with a glowing occasionally, likely to get her attention.

"That's the primary motion lock control, press it to turn off the system."

"Motion lock?"

"it's, a new system we've been developing, its currently only active in seven other ACU's, just, press that button to switch it off so we can get you out."

She slowly reached for it and gently pressed the button, it stopped glowing.

"Alright, now, you can move over to here."

Cassandra became aware of the fact that she was sitting down on some sort of chair, she was pretty securely locked by several restraints around her waist and legs, but without any help she found out how to get free.

"nice, alright she'll take you to a place where you can recover, just be back here in five minutes for your basic training alright?"

Although still shaking Cassandra refused, instead she secured herself again.

"Look cas-"

"No, I've spent most of my life getting to this point, now let's do this so I can get out there."

One of the others laughed and she heard Daniel make an annoyed grumble, money quickly changed hands.

"Alright, remember that I did give you a chance."

Daniel and the others stepped out of the ACU, telling her first how to switch the power systems from passive to active before she closed the seal.

A large display formed in from of Cassandra, showing her not only considerable amounts of information of her surroundings, but also a clear visual of what was in front of the ACU.

As the initiate tried to absorb the knowledge that was being thrown before her a semitransparent image formed, another operator like Daniel...

"Alright, let's leave off the motion lock till you've gotten used to old faithful."

"Sounds good to me."

Daniel was impressed to say the least as he watched this new initiate learn how her ACU functioned, she was a quick study and had easily shaken off the initial trauma of being synced with her new construct.

he did wonder though if she knew that her ACU was linked ONLY to her, unlike the Cybrans or the UEF, an Aeon ACU had varying methods to make certain that its operator was the right one, a simple little defense against having one of them captured by the enemy.

But what really surprised Daniel was when she discovered the construction routines and activated them, opening up her basic engineering suite.

"Cassandra? What are you doing?"

"Seeing how far I can push this thing."

The one she was talking to was about to stop her but Daniel intervened.

"Elaborate."

"you've got to have some practice troops here for me to fight, bring them in.

Her, request, brought a smile to Daniel.

"Alright, you have thirty seconds, build up a defense as quickly as you can, then we'll see what you've got, oh, and let's close off the communications, just to add some realism to this hmm?"

"Got it."

Cassandra did as told, shutting down the communications before she could be stopped.

"Sir, what are you doing?"

Daniel chuckled, this wasn't part of the procedure.

"She wants a challenge, so lets provide one."

The operator's chuckle had some of the others' hair stand on end.

Cassandra kept a very close eye on the Radar, but when she saw the blips appearing she found it, hard to believe, it was like watching a stream come at her.

She barely had any defenses up, this was going to end badly for her, she needed to think of something.

In the end she could only think of one thing, she walked away from her defenses and straight to the enemy.

"What is she thinking?"

Daniel's chuckles were the only answer to that question, he had an idea of what she was going to do.

Cassandra saw them, mainly tanks and Assault bots, all of them were tier 1 aeon land forces, she chose the bots.

Capture subroutines were activated in her ACU, allowing her to convert some of the 'enemy' forces over to her control, but instead of keeping them with her, she sent them out, straight through the center of the enemy forces.

This offered her a somewhat simple delaying strategy, although it allowed some damage to befall her ACU, as she would say, it was a calculated risk, it did offer her a chance to retreat behind her defenses and construct a basic land factory, once it was up she left it, heading over to the enemy wave, capturing more and reclaiming some of them, converting them to raw mass contained in the ACU's onboard storage for her to use.

The land factory began construction of several engineers the moment Mass was available for use, using quantum transportation to take the mass out of the ACU's storage.

The moment one of the engineers was fully formed it headed over to Cassandra, allowing its systems to activate and immediately start repairs.

Despite the advantage Cassandra was getting a bit concerned, even with her new engineers committed to repairs, she was still pretty badly hurt.

Three engineers were solely dedicated to repairing the ACU, when the fourth formed she had it construct another land factory, the fifth headed over to join the ACU in capturing enemy troops.

"Impressive initiate, but let's see how you handle this…"

Daniel activated the aerial practice troops, sending several bombers to her.

Cassandra's radar picked up the new threat when it came into range, she immediately started construction of an Anti Air turret, once it was done she and the engineers repairing her retreated back behind the defensive line, two of them were instructed to construct several more point defenses while the last one joined her in constructing Anti Air.

it seemed pretty grim when the bombers came into range but she had a gut feeling, immediately having her ACU walk away from its current position.

Luck or something more? Whatever it was saved her, the bombers dropped their shells on nothing more than polished floor, some of them were even destroyed by the growing AA defenses forming.

"Now than, one last test, let's see what she will do about, this."

Daniel was about to do something that was definitely going to bring harm to Cassandra but his hand was grabbed mere moments before it was too late.

"That's enough."

He didn't even need to look at who it was, that voice told him plenty.

"Of course Crusader, have her recalled."

Daniel was let go as the one who stopped him handed him new orders.

Cassandra was to rest for an hour before joining a briefing with the Avatar-of-War Jaran Marxon.

It concerned Daniel, sure he would push her and maybe push her too far but getting her involved with Marxon meant she was going to be joining the more dangerous parts of the war.

"Damn, alright, let's get this over with."

No part of Daniel liked this, it was pretty obvious that Cassandra was exceptionally talented but, she hasn't faced any real enemy yet.

"Don't worry, ill keep an eye on her for the first deployment." Stated the crusader before walking away.

That at least offered Daniel some form of relief, not a lot but at least, some.


	3. Chapter 3 New Orders

Cassandra was initially annoyed when she was recalled, the exercise could have gotten a bit more interesting but her annoyance was quickly drowned out with anticipation and more importantly fear when she heard that she was to report for a briefing with Marxon.

She was rather antsy during her wait, pacing back and forth in her new quarters until finally she saw the communications terminal on one of the sides show alerts.

Taking a deep breath Cassandra headed over to the console and opened the encrypted channel

A few seconds of proper encrypting had to be endured before the image of a man appeared.

Old, becoming grey, but not in a bad way, sure he was rather aged but, it was clear when she looked in to his dull greenish grey eyes that he had more combat experience alone than most Aeon had sent prayers for the way to guide them.

"Hello knight, I am Avatar Marxon, You will report to me, and ONLY me."

At first Cassandra was shocked, it still hadn't sunk in, the moment she was linked with her ACU she became a knight, but, something else bothered her immediately after.

He stated clearly as an order that she was to report ONLY to him.

That, irked the young knight considerably yet a second image appeared still while Marxon made his order clear to her.

A woman well aged, grey hair, almost turning white with turquoise colored eyes.

From the attire that Cassandra could see she deduced that this woman, whoever she was, had to have been an Evaluator, but this was a military briefing , why would a civilian interfere?

"The princess holds command over the military Marxon, you would be wise to remember that."

It was, gratifying to say the least for Cassandra when she heard that, this woman, this evaluator had kicked Marxon down a notch or two but it seemed pointless, the avatar stated that they were winning the infinite war because of HIS actions, HE was the Aeon military, the only good bit of information from that discussion was the name of the evaluator.

Toth.

Cassandra was glad that the communications terminal displayed only her head and shoulders, she was gripping her fists so tightly that her nails were digging into the palms of her hands.

She wanted to say what was on her mind but that would have been insubordination.

Luckily the following moments were that of more important matters, Marxon gave her orders, she was to head to Rigel and assist Crusader Rhiza who was on planet and engaging the enemy.

"Of course Avatar."

Marxon seemed to enjoy that moment but Evaluator Toth said something that got on his nerves.

"Remember knight, our primary mission is to spread The Way to all of humanity, that is our calling, The Way will bring peace"

Marxon said something about the complete annihilation of the UEF and the Cybrans but Cassandra ignored that, he may be an Avatar-of-War but she knew that Toth was right, war only brings more war.

The new knight was given two minutes to take care of anything that she had to before she was to gate but Cassandra didn't waste time, she headed straight to her ACU, stopping momentarily to marvel at its splendor.

"It really is something else isn't it?"

Daniel was almost rewarded a solid punch to his face but she was able to show enough restraint to prevent that.

"Yes it is, but I don't have time for this, I am to gate immediately to Rigel.

"I know, just a heads up alright, everyone has a different feeling when they Gate, some describe it as a burning sensation, some like bathing in pure energy, just, don't let it get to you too much and you should be fine."

This was at least something that Cassandra did know about, the effects of Quantum Gates seem to have a psychological effect on all humans, although the reasons are not known it is definitely there.

"Alright, let's do this."

Daniel was still against this idea, but he had no say in the matter, who was he, a mere operator to question the Avatar-of-War?

"alright, charge the gate, we are sending her now."

"Now?"

"yes, now."

The one that asked him merely sighed before doing as he was instructed.

"Alright, open a comm channel to her."

He had his request followed, this was her first time and it was very important that she was to remain relaxed.

"Alright Cassandra, listen to me now, I know this is going to feel weird just breath normally and it will all be over."

"if you say so."

He saw that she was relaxed but her voice, was still a little tense.

"Okay Cassandra, close your eyes and listen to my voice, focus on that alright? I'm going to count down for you."

The others knew what he was doing and didn't interfere.

He started just as the gate was fully charged.

Several machines came to life above the ACU, forming a nearly flat surface of energy, these machines spiraled down in sync, allowing the ACU pass through this field slowly.

As it did the ACU was, for lack of better explanation, stored inside the Gate that it passing through, when it was all absorbed by the machine Cassandra would be sent out to Rigel.

Cassandra focused on the voice of his operator as intently as she could while he counted down but the second number he said was the last she heard before the field passed through her.

As it did Cassandra experienced something that no one else ever did.

It felt as if someone gently brushed her hair behind her ear from behind before a whisper could be heard in her ear.

" _I won't ever forget you."_

Fear of something that she had no knowledge of flooded her before a sharp pain in her side became evident.

The pain and the voice vanished as the gate sent her to Rigel.

When all the signs indicated that the gate was successful Daniel allowed himself a moment to breath, it would take a few seconds for her to reach her destination.

"sir, have a look at this."

Immediately the operator's hairs stood on end as he heard one of the others ask that he head over there.

"What is it?"

"Her bio signature, something, is off."

The operator didn't waste any time as he went over the data that was displayed.

There was a single little anomaly in her brain.

Something in Cassandra seemed to turn on when she was exposed to the quantum energy from the gate.

But it didn't make sense, quantum gates never affected humans like this, well….

Immediately daniel's eyes opened wide as he realized something.

A VERY specific type of human did react like this when they were exposed to quantum energy.

"Get me ALL her neurological information dating back as far as possible."

The others started to realize what it was that Daniel was getting agitated about.

"You don't think that she is-"

"I need to make certain before I make any assumptions."

They understood and immediately headed out to gather the information that he requested.

While he was alone Daniel decided that he didn't have time to wait, he needed to take drastic measures, the man felt so stupid, the signs were clear in the practice run, and even before that.

He opened up an encrypted channel to Evaluator Toth.

"Operator Daniel? What is the matter? This channel is-"

"It is important evaluator, I must ask that you come here as soon as possible, we may have a problem with the new initiate."

"She is a knight, and what is it?"

"I am gathering information on her now but, she may be one of them."

At first Toth was confused but when realization struck her it was clear as day.

"I will come immediately."

With that the channel was closed and a small amount of relief entered the lone operator.


	4. Chapter 4 First Battle

Cassandra was ill prepared for the rigors of quantum gating, if her ACU didn't lock up the moment she reformed on Rigel it would have nearly commenced several different commands at once, one of them included the self-destruct.

"I don't have time to hold your hand knight, begin constructing a few mass extractors and generators immediately."

Cassandra shook her head and quickly got her bearings as the spinning stopped, she was safely on planet as well as Crusader Rhiza herself, but the crusader was leaving her, heading to a different section of the planet closer to the UEF forces.

"Hay knight, what did I say?"

"Uh, mass extractors and generators, on it."

Rhiza sighed at that reply before opening an encrypted two way channel directly to Cassandra, she wanted to talk to the new knight without operator Daniel or anyone else listening in.

"Look knight, you need to relax okay? Everyone has trouble their first time, just don't let it get to you okay? I read up on you and you should be able to win this battle on your own, I'm just here to fix any mistakes you might make."

Cassandra looked at the image of Rhiza, a short haired woman with some minor markings on her face stating her rank as Crusader, she as many other Aeons had green tinted eyes, lips and hair, a minor effect common with Aeon for reasons unknown, but it was the look Rhiza had that mattered.

There was concern but a trust in her eyes, she trusted Cassandra like a distant relative.

"Alright."

The crusader closed the channel before smiling.

"Let's see what you can really do."

To say that the new knight was a quick worker would do little justice, she had made a rather impressive naval and aerial force, sending it out to destroy the UEF's local bases, as luck would have it her bombers encountered one of the enemy ACU's, it took little effort to bring about its complete destruction.

Yet as joy filled Cassandra from seeing one of her hated enemies turn into a giant fireball from his ACU's reactor melting down, creating a nuclear blast, something, felt wrong.

She couldn't take full pleasure in this while something, something she had forgotten, slowly scratched at the back of her head.

It bothered her slightly, what was this, nagging feeling, why was it here? She had done the right thing, did she leave herself open somehow?

Cassandra falsely assumed that was what it was, she immediately started to shore up her defenses in preparation for a counter attack by the remaining UEF forces.

As Rhiza prepared a lethal surprise for the remaining UEF she saw what her companion was doing, and didn't understand, why was she doubling her defensive lines when the last enemy ACU was going to be destroyed soon enough?

"Knight? What is wrong?"

"I don't know, something feels, off."

"What do you mean?"

"There is something wrong crusader."

She thought about it for a moment before realizing what was bothering Cassandra.

"Knight, don't, you are wasting your resources, I know what is 'wrong', destroy these defenses so we can finish this, then I'll tell you what it is."

Cassandra gave in, Rhiza did have far more combat experience than she does, if there really was something than the crusader would have the answers.

"Alright, I'll take care of their defenses."

Rhiza nodded in acceptance before closing the channel again and smiling, but that smile quickly turned into a frown, the knight was clearly not ready to take the life of another, well, to disregard a certain thing about what she was.

She was not looking forward to the talk that she was going to have with the knight after the battle was done.

Luckily a new distraction presented itself, her surprise for the UEF commander was complete and was being filled right now.

Cassandra made short work of what little defenses were still present and was about to send her forces straight to the enemy commander but instead, she was asked not to.

"have your forces pull back, I will take care of this myself."

"As you say Crusader."

She was curious what was about to happen, why would she have to pull back her forces? What does Rhiza-

Cassandra's sensors picked up something, something MASSIVE.

She looked up and saw the skies parting as a wonder of Aeon technology came down.

A gigantic flying saucer to the foolish, but for those that knew what it was, they knew that this battle was truly over.

Czar, an experimental aircraft factory, although its strength comes from the hundreds of fliers that it can carry the Czar had a devastating array of weaponry, enemy fliers tried to shoot it down but were annihilated before they could get into range, enemy boats were blown to bits from the quantum depth charges that were dropped down upon them.

The Czar neared the enemy base and its hangers opened up, allowing the bombers, fighters and gunships to pour forth from it.

Yet the best was still to come.

As the Czar positioned itself over the enemy ACU the generators of its main weapon activated, flooding the vessel with considerable power.

The lenses in the center of the ship shifted slightly, locking in position in preparation.

The beam cannon in the center of the vessel fired down, its destructive potential amplified severely by the quantum lenses.

A single gigantic wave of raw energy was sent down, it impacted against the enemy ACU, engulfing it completely, it could hold out for mere moments.

The enemy ACU was pierced, its reactor went critical, a second catastrophic meltdown occurred, delivering the second nuclear blast upon this world, the UEF had been defeated, this world belonged to the Aeon now.

Yet, the nagging feeling in the back of Cassandra's head grew worse when the enemy commander was destroyed.

What was this?

Why was it here?

They had won so why, why couldn't she take pleasure in that?

"Knight, commence recall immediately, WE, need to talk."

Rhiza saw the confused expression on her companion's face, and the crusader was really not looking forward to the chat that she was going to be having with the knight but it was something that had to be done.

To win this war, knight Cassandra was going to have to give up somethings that other civilian Aeon would never even consider.

"Daniel, make sure that she is taken to the gardens, I need to talk to her there."

The operator was surprised that Rhiza contacted him directly, she was almost always a one woman army but it was okay, he knew that this was a different matter.

"Of course crusader but I must urge you to make it quick, Evaluator Toth and I must confirm or Deny our suspicions about Knight Cassandra."

"Suspicions?"

"Yes, there, is something, interesting that happened when the knight gated over to Rigel, we will however wait patiently for you to help her."

"I'm not helping her, I just…."

She had no words that would fit, yet instead of giving in Rhiza just told Daniel that her ACU had suffered Damage and that it would need repairs.

"Of course."

With that said, the channels were closed one last time before Rhiza's ACU began the recall procedure, instructing the quantum gate she used to leave to take her back.


End file.
